Aussie building replica of Titanic says ship to be '98% the same'

Clive Palmer, the Australian billionaire building a replica of the R.M.S. Titanic told the BBC on August 24 that his ship will be virtually the same as the doomed liner and be called the Titanic II. Any changes will be for increased safety.

"It will be 98% the same," Palmer said. "The only difference will be an extra deck, to give the bridge greater visibility over the bow, which the original didn't have - very much to its cost." There will also be 4m of extra width for stability, in line with modern safety standards.

Original design of R.M.S. Titanic

The project was announced last spring and Palmer intends to have it finished in four years and said designers are at work now readying a Chinese shipyard to build the liner. The ship will carry passengers between the U.K. and the U.S., as was intended with the original Titanic, which sunk on its maiden voyage after hitting an iceberg 100 years ago, on April 15, 1912.

Palmer told the BBC he and his design team managed to procure copies of the original designs used by the now-defunct White Star Line to build the R.M.S. Titanic in Belfast. He did not reveal what the project was costing but said that already he has "had 45,000 people expressing an interest in traveling on Titanic II."